HANG ON in there - that’s the message from David Moyes to his Everton FC players, as he urges them to stay with the chasing pack over Christmas.

The Blues might not be safely ensconced in the Champions League places for the duration next month, but Moyes believes that by staying in touching distance they can keep their hopes alive.

That thrilling victory over Spurs at Goodison at the start of the month pushed Everton back into the top four, but last weekend’s draw with Stoke saw them slip down to sixth place in the Premier League as an increasing amount of sides fight it out for the European places.

Injuries are beginning to bite into the Toffees’ small squad again with Kevin Mirallas and Tony Hibbert still missing, but Moyes believes his squad’s long ingrained spirit will see them weather their difficulties.

“I think just at the period we're in at the moment we've got to hang on to people's shirt-tails if we can,” says the Scot.

“We could bob in and out of it, like it happened last week but I think we've got to try and hang in there.

“This is quite a difficult period for us, we've come through hard games - if you look we've had Man City, Arsenal, Tottenham ... you're away at Stoke and away at West Ham.

“It's a difficult period we've had and we're still in a pretty good position. I don't think there's anybody looking as if they're really running away with it but it's really important if you can somehow just start to pick up the points.

“The one point's good but we need to start trying to find a few victories out of that.”

Everton’s team-spirit was epitomised by Nikica Jelavic’s enthusiastic high fives for the entire bench after he scored the winner against Spurs, but for Moyes it was merely affirmation of what he has tried to build at Goodison.

“We've got what I call a DNA in here which people see, which is a sort of spirit and a commitment and I think that's something we've had here and its something we're going to need to get us the results,” he says.

“I think they all know it, the players know it, that they've got that ability - when they have to go into their resources they've got bags of Everton character written in there.

“It gives me the confidence that if things weren't going that well we can hopefully go back and use that, if we need to go into that and use it.

“But I've got to look at what's happened in the past and Everton's record in the last few years has meant that we've tended to do quite well in the second half of the season.

“People ask about getting off to a good start, and I try to say well maybe Everton finish where they finish.”

Moyes is still dearly hoping his men can repeat the achievement of their 2005 predecessors who started well and kept it going.

“The one real good year we had we got off to a good start and were able to maintain it,” he says.

“I think really we're hoping for that season to fall rather than get a good start and a bad finish which might be just a flip of what we've done in recent seasons.

“So hopefully the one real good season we've had we got fourth, we started well and it gave us a chance of maintaining it.”

The Blues boss is a renowned meticulous planner, but nevertheless he is not setting his side a points total target to realise their ambitions.

“Not really,” he says. “Because the way the Premier League has been at the moment it’s so tight, and there could quite easily be somebody in 15th or 16th who comes on a run, wins three or four games and is suddenly in the mix.

“61 points (in 2005) last time was one of the lowest figures to get in.

“I genuinely haven't looked at the figures to see what might be needed.

“Because realistically we're not directly going for fourth place, we're going to try and finish in a European spot, that's what I'm hoping we might do.”

Moyes admits there is more pressure on other clubs to finish fourth than on the Blues.

“That's why when you talk about Arsenal and Tottenham and Liverpool - Newcastle are in there as well, you have to give West Brom a lot of credit for the way they're going.

“You'd have to say there's probably three or four of those teams their names might spring to fourth before Everton's would.

“But hopefully we've something to go to this year as well, there's a real something for the players to attain, to hang in and not get yourself too far out of it.”